Cousins
by Weezila
Summary: Its not everyday you wake up to find that you were a tree for 6 years, the boy you once trusted your life to has gone crazy super-villain on you, the little girl you semi-adopted with said psycho has grown up and moved on and is not-so-subtly head over heels with a cousin you didnt know existed and still don't know what to think of. Id say we all have those days, but I'd be lying.
1. Hello Jerks

It was like a dream, a long, long, _long_ dream.

I knew it was longer than your average night, but it still only felt like I'd closed my eyes for a second when my stomach started to turn, my head pounded, and the world spun sickeningly, even in my sleep.

What was wrong? Dying should not feel like this.

Dying should be painful, then there should be some sort of nothingness or a counsel waiting to judge me, or _something_ other than this half-dream uncomfortable, dizzying feeling.

It had been painful, yes, but then there'd been this dream. A dream that could've lasted seconds or hours or days or years… time held no meaning because there was only this dream of this valley and this hill. I sat with my legs crossed looking down at the valley, though the big white house and the cabins that had been there when I first caught a glimpse of this valley weren't there, there was still the forest and the lake and the sloping fields.

I must've sat there forever, and yet it also felt as if I hadn't even let the dust settle from sitting down before the dream titled sideways and I felt sick to my stomach.

It was over in a flash, and the dream and the sickness was gone, replaced by the regular blackness of sleep.

Is this what dying was? How strange. You'd've thought Hades would be more creative, or at least less of a manipulative jerk—I'd rather have just be dead over this half-dream, confusing crap.

"_Thalia!? Oh my gods,_ _Thalia!"_ A very familiar voice was whispering in my sleeping ear. No, not whispering, she sounded more like she was screaming, but she was so far away it was like hearing her through cotton.

"_Chiron!"_

"_Grover, get Percy!"_

"_What're we going to do-?"_

"_How the Hades…?"_

"_Not good! So not good!"_

Distant voices chattered as they seemed to get closer and closer, or rather, my consciousness started to get clearer and clearer and things came back to reality.

First I felt my body, but it felt strange, like I'd just jumped into someone else's head rather than be truly comfortable in my own body as I'd been my entire life. My head pounded with the biggest headache I've ever felt, my chest ached and throbbed, and my stomach still spun sickeningly—but it was very much _there; _ I was hyperaware of every little muscle and eyelash on me, and I wondered if this was what it felt like to be electrocuted (not that I would know).

Then, I got my senses back, just in time to feel a hand brush gently against my cheek.

"_Thalia… oh Thalia…"_ Someone, a girl it sounded, was right above me where I lay… on the ground? It felt like grass and dirt beanth my skin.

Everyone was talking at once, and it made my head spin—how many people were here, watching me sleep? Freaks.

The ground beneath my ears thundered, and I recognized horse hooves fast approaching. The girl beside me moved, and for some reason I didn't like that, so I doubled my energies to open my eyes and come completely back to the land of the living, though it was a slow trek.

Everyone's talking had dropped down to whispers, and it helped me focus so that I could start pulling myself further and further back to consciousness.

I heard two feet hit the ground hard and someone yell, "_Percy, wait!"_

What should he be waiting for? What was going on?

I felt another presence by my side, and a gentle hand on my forehead. This hand was rougher, bigger than the last, but it sent shocks over my skin. My own shocks actually, as if I was naturally warding this person off by little tremors of electricity. As it happened, that actually helped and sharpened everything up.

Which, would've been helpful if I hadn't been so incredibly _sore!_

And suddenly it was just me lying on the ground with nothing stopping me from opening my eyes save for the painful soreness that felt more like rigor mortis than sleeping wrong for a night.

"She needs nectar and ambrosia!" The voice said beside me. Oh, yes, that would be very helpful right now I thought mentally with an internal flinch as a hand curled around my shoulders and helped me sit up.

_Ow… yes, a sip of ambrosia would be __**very**__ helpful right now_, I mentally groaned.

"Come on! What's wrong with you people? Let's get her to the Big House!" The voice—a guy I realized—said commandingly of those around, which, I realized had been talking about me but not actually helping.

Jerks.

I groaned, coughing a little as air filtered down into my very sore lungs (how could my _lungs_ be sore!? It's not like I don't use them regularly!) and finally managed to flutter my eyes open.

Shocking emerald eyes were looking into my own blue eyes with concern and confusion. While my eyes were sapphires, his were emeralds, but he had matching pitch black hair like I did. He kinda looked like he just woke up though, this his hair pointed every which way. On second thought, he must've _really_ just woken up, seeing as he was wearing sweats and no shoes, as if he'd literally just rolled out of bed.

But his eyes were concerned and his protective touch around my shoulders spoke of honest worry for me, where as the crowd of people gaping at us were… well, just gaping.

Fat lot of help _they_ were.

Jerks.

I finally found my voice. "Who…?"

"I'm Percy," He said with a crooked smile. "You're safe now." He told me so earnestly I had to believe him.

Then I remembered that crazy-ass dream.

"Strangest dream…" I commented dully. It was the first thing that popped into my head, so forgive the lack of creativity.

"It's okay." He said, the worry and sympathy in his eyes doubling his concern.

Uh, _no_ it was NOT ok…! I suddenly remembering what was happening _before_ the dream and something was very-much off right now. My natural demigod paranoia as I called it started to kick in and I remembered the hellhound on top of me, tearing and ripping and shredding...

"Dying…!" I coughed again, tensing in preparation for the attack that had already happened apparently. Was I in shreds? Where was all the blood, I wondered, glancing down at myself though I seemed to be perfectly fine.

Weird…

"No," He assured me, a hand resting on my clenched fist to tell me it was all ok. "You're okay." He promised. "What's your name?"

I looked back into his shocking green eyes, and even before I said it I saw the flash of recognition in his face as he put together some pieces of information belatedly.

"I am Thalia, daughter of Zeus." I said, giving the standard demigod intro of name and parent. And, this guy was totally a demigod too, seeing as there was a centaur standing ten feet behind him and he wasn't freaking out.

"Uh…" He said cleverly. "Nice to meet you?" But it sounded more like a question. His green eyes were very much confused, his mild surprise seeming to be unique compared to the dozens of flabbergasted expressions crowding around us.

"Pleasure." I deadpanned, groaning a bit as I leaned forward to sit up on my own, and he sat back to sit close, but not awkwardly close to me on the ground, only there to help if I needed it.

Which, I didn't. The concern was nice, but I didn't care for being babied, especially not in front of a crowd.

"Thalia?" A girl's voice whispered, and I glanced up instinctively.

A girl, about thirteen or fourteen years old in full-on battle armor, stood just inside the ring of those onlookers, who still seemed to be frozen in shock and staring rather uncomfortably at me and Percy sitting in front of the… tree? Wait a second, they were on half-blood hill, and there hadn't been any _tree_ there a second ago…

But the tree was shelved for the moment as the familiarity of the girl struck me, _hard_. She had wide, tearful gray eyes set into a pretty face, and long, golden, curls swirling down her back and hanging in her face where it fell from a messy ponytail. She looked lost, with those tears streaming down her face, and the rather deadly looking _familiar_ knife in her hand held limply as if she'd forgotten she still held it.

And suddenly it wasn't this teenager standing there looking at me like that, it was my little Annabeth.

But… Annabeth was only seven…?

"Thalia…!?" The girl said again, almost pleading in a broken little sob.

"This is… wait, what the heck's going on!?" I demanded, glaring out at the ring of very unhelpful people, who all either jumped or took a step back at the growl.

"Annabeth," Percy said, his concern shift from me to the blonde girl on a dime, and he was up in a second to stand beside her, holding her hand in comfort. It looked like her tears were physically hurting him as he struggled to find a way to make them stop.

Wait a minute…

"_Annabeth!?"_ I half yelled, half gasped. "You're- you're…"

"Grown up some." She sighed, lurching forward and landing on her knees in front of me, wrapping me in a hug.

I was shocked for a long few seconds before hugging her back fiercely. I had no clue what the hell was going on, or why my little Annabeth was all… teenager-ish now, but I _did_ know she was the little girl I've semi-adopted with Luke, and not ten seconds ago I watched her run into the camp while I held off a heck of a lot of monsters, not expecting to live to see her again…

But suddenly the shock wore off, and the soreness I'd been ignoring came back full force.

"Ugh," I groaned, pulling back from her and grimacing, lamenting my muscles and holding my still-lurching stomach. "Help me stand up, I'm sore as hell." I groaned, and she quickly nodded and gripped my arms, pulling me to my feet.

I stumbled as my knees buckled under unfamiliar weight, though I had no clue why. Suddenly there were two people standing on either side of me, draping my arms around their shoulders to support my weight. Annabeth on my right, and Percy returned on my left.

"We should get you to the Big House." Annabeth said, still biting back her tears.

"Yeah, and can someone please grab some ambrosia?" Percy chimed in. Yes, ambrosia sounds like a great idea right now, I thought again.

The crowd of jerks parted to let us three hobble with difficulty down the hill, me finding it harder than anticipated to find my legs again.

"Holy hell, what in the name of Hades is wrong with my stupid legs?" I groaned upon tripping yet again on what apparently seemed to be a blade of grass.

"Thalia… it's been awhile. You've haven't used your legs in a long time." Annabeth said in a forced calm, her tears drying some as she stopped crying with difficulty.

Somehow, that made sense. That dream… well, deep down I knew it wasn't the seconds I thought it was at times… but maybe a lot longer.

I gritted my teeth. "Why do I feel like I've been pumped full of LSD?" I sighed.

Annabeth looked confused for a spit second. "You were poisoned." Percy said, and Annabeth gave him a look.

"Technically _she_ wasn't poisoned…" She said to him, but didn't sound so sure.

"Her tree," He shrugged, but stopping midway as I stumbled as his support shrugged with him.

"What's _my tree?_" I demanded. "And why are you not seven? And where's Luke?" I demanded of them. Only on my last question did they both respond by tensing up. I couldn't judge who was more upset about that topic: Annabeth, who trembled slightly underneath my arm, or Percy, whose muscles had turned to stone as he tensed at the subject.

"Touchy subject?" I murmured.

No one answered, though it felt like Percy wanted to and remained silent out of respect so Annabeth could find her words.

"Something like that." She said weakly. "Let's get you better and… then we… can talk…" She said, seeming to find this whole ordeal a lot harder than Percy or me. _I_ was the one who was totally lost and out of it right now and Percy… well, he didn't seem like the kind of guy to be freaked by anything.

I wanted to start up a conversation to distract from Annabeth's internal freak-out, but since she was obviously lost in her own thoughts, I turned to Percy.

"So… what do you do around here for fun?" I asked causally, and this time he was the one to stumble in surprise.

"Uh… train." He blurted out, seeming surprised by his own truthfulness. It made me smirk deviously, realizing that this guy was everything Annabeth and Luke _weren't_: all muscle and very little brain. Not that I didn't love Luke's craftiness and Annabeth's brilliance, but I was always a _throw-a-punch-first-and-talk-about-it-later _kind of girl, combined with just a dash of fore-thought and deviousness and flicker of common sense. I learned my brains from the streets, not books like the other two of my family, and just by a glance I could tell Percy learned it that way too.

For once, there was someone I was smarter than, and I kinda enjoyed the flicker of evil pleasure it gave me in being able to flaunt it like Annabeth used to love to do to me—as if being outsmarted by a seven year old wasn't sigh-inducing enough.

And he seemed like a good guy—after all, he'd jumped up to help a complete stranger while everyone else (including Annabeth, who'd known me better than everyone save maybe Luke) just stood by and stared.

Again: jerks.

He seemed to be painfully honest, not having the brain power or the deviousness to lie, and not an evil bone in his body too corrupt him from being the innocent, if not slow person he was.

"You don't say! Train, at a training camp?" I smirked.

He blinked. "Uh… I swim too, I guess. And play capture the flag on Fridays." He added.

I shuddered involuntarily. "Ugh, I hate swimming." I scoffed. "To each their own or whatever," I allowed, giving him an impressive eye roll if I do say so myself.

He frowned, opening his mouth to say something, but Annabeth cut us both off.

"Give her a break until we get this sorted out," She told him, and he looked at her before dutifully closing his mouth though he still frowned at me. "And you, leave him alone." She told my with a stern look.

I wanted to roll my eyes at her, but as always, I listened and simply shrugged, focusing on getting to the Big House.

Once there, I was pretty impressed by the rec-room décor, but even more thankful for the satyr waiting there with a glass of golden liquid with the sweet smell of grilling hamburgers coming from it. Gods she'd _love_ a hamburger right now, as she realized just how hungry she was.

Then she did a double-take as _who_ was holding the ambrosia.

"Grover!" She cried happily. "Looks like you're still kickin', and… have horns. And a beard. That's just great, I was getting really confused with little Annie here suddenly gone teenager on me, and now my favorite satyr has too. Tell me I'm missing something," I sighed as Annabeth and Percy helped me to a couch and Grover came closer, looking like he was trembling.

"Oh gods, T-Thalia… I'm _s-s-so sorry!"_ He bleated, tears welling up as he shook. Annabeth kindly took the glass from him to keep it from spilling while Percy clapped Grover on the back comfortingly.

"It's ok G-man, she's fine," Percy told him gently, "Already making fun of me and everything. Don't freak…"

I, for my part, was in shock. "Grover? What's wrong dude!? I'm okay, I really am—come here you over grown goat-boy!" I struggled to stand again, but Percy got the message and shoved Grover forward. I caught him in a surprise hug as he came close enough, and the satyr bleated with soft little sobs.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so, so sorry! You can't forgive me, you just… you can't! I'm so sorry…" He whimpered.

"Grover," I said semi-scoldingly, pulling back to catch his gaze. "I've no clue what you're apologizing about, but I'm perfectly ok save for being sore as hell, and am about a thousand percent positive you could never do anything to get me truly pissed at you to the point where you need to _cry_ about it! So, if you'd be so kind, _shut the hell up_." I smirked at him, hugging him tightly once more before letting him go.

"Oh Thalia…" Grover sighed, smiling weakly back at me. "You've been gone a long time. And… it's mostly my fault."

"Yeah, right." Percy scoffed. "So far as I'm concerned, it's Hades fault." He declared comfortingly.

"It's Hades'_ job_ to be difficult, and I should've-"

"Are you seriously arguing this? Uh-uh, no way, I agree with Thalia that you can shut up now." Percy smiled at the satyr, wrapping one arm around his shoulders and grinning broadly.

Thalia frowned a little bit, watching the two of them. Something about their posture and the way they seemed so totally comfortable with each other reminded her vaguely of… well, of how she used to act around her protector.

"Here, drink." Annabeth said, putting the glass of ambrosia in my hand. I gladly took a couple sips, relishing in the taste of Seattle's Rain City's Burgers, and relaxing as I felt my soreness melt away.

"Well, that did the trick," I smiled, stretching my arms free of pain and actually standing and jumping a little to get my joints moving. "I've no clue why I was so stiff instead of bloody, but I expect that's one of those things you're going to explain later?" I said, challenging Annabeth with one raised eyebrow.

She bit her lip and gave a weak nod.

I frowned at that reaction. "Is it later yet?" I demanded.

She glanced at Percy, who was looking at her with a steady but blank gaze. She turned back to me and gave a very weak smile. "Yeah. It's later." She sighed.


	2. Shocks and Waves

"Maybe I should leave, just so you two can-"

"Actually… could you stay?" Annabeth said softly, pulling Percy back from where he was trying to edge out the door.

"Really?" He asked, looking like he was half hopeful, half dreading, half suspicious. Which, didn't add up to a whole, but I wasn't good at math and I hardly cared.

Annabeth only nodded mutely and turned back to me as she tried to figure out what she wanted to say.

I stared at her for a long minute, watching the battle play out on her face. Whatever was going on in her head, it must've been one hell of a battle, because Annabeth was never at a loss of what to say or what to do. After all, Athena always had a plan.

It was only when she glanced back at Percy for a third time that I realized something I probably should've seen from the start.

First of all, that boy had moved from comforting Grover to standing dutifully behind Annabeth as she struggled internally, not saying anything though he looked like he might've wanted to comment, and every time she glanced back he gave her a small smile and gentle nod. Although they were roughly the same height, and both quite a bit younger than me, he seemed to be standing almost… _protectively_ beside her. As if he'd need to protect her from _me!_ As if he _could. _

Yeah, right, if anything I'd be the one kicking his ass if he came a step closer. Annie was _my_ responsibility, _my_ semi-adopted little freak, and no random boy was going to act like he knew he better than I did while I was still breathing—no matter how _nice_ he was.

The strange feeling I got when his hand was on my forehead, as if my body was subconsciously warding him off, triggered again and I felt the sudden urge to tell him to get out, or at the very least move Annabeth away from him.

Not that it made any sense, but, whatever. I was an instinctual kinda girl more than a brainiac, so I didn't tend to dwell on this stuff.

My own internal rant was cut short as Annabeth finally resolved hers.

"Thalia… it's… it's been a long time." She finally said, giving me that _look_—the one she'd used when giving bad news. She tended to explain things to me like I was a toddler or something, dumbing it way down, mostly because she didn't want to say it so I was only ever mildly offended by it.

I pressed my lips together impatiently. "Well, seeing as you're not seven anymore and Grover's finally hit puberty, I kinda gathered as much smartie. Still, to me it's been only a few seconds or minutes since I was being ripped apart by a hellhound, or _five_. So, if you'd be so kind as to skip the '_it's been a long time'_ crap, I'd _love_ to hear the nasty details you don't want to spill." I huffed.

It was harsher than I'd anticipated, but I wasn't totally keen on censoring my thoughts, and Annabeth knew that. I wanted facts, not coddling.

By the softening in her gray eyes, I saw that she understood that.

But by the hardening in the emerald orbs behind her, I could see that Percy didn't.

"She's being _nice_. Ever heard of it?" He said softly, but I _definitely_ heard the bite behind it. Truthfully, I hadn't thought the guy would say it, but I was pleasantly surprised, and more than a little intrigued. After all, I already had the instinct to push him around, and where would the fun be if he didn't push back?

"No, Percy," Annabeth interrupted before I could even form the sneer on my lips properly. She turned and put a hand on his shoulder with a small, comforting smile of her own. "Thalia's a… rough around the edges kind of person. That was her saying she's confused, not an insult to me, I promise." She explained soothingly.

His green eyes watched her closely, as if she were the most vital thing in the world for him to be listening to at that moment, and the second she finished he relaxed, his aggressive tension melting away as he looked back at me with the curious but complacent look again.

Curiouser and curiouser…

Annabeth interrupted my thoughts again as she turned back to me, "Fine, I just forgot for a moment how… blunt you were-uh, _are_.… Well, my point is that… it's been a long time for _me, _and I'd thought I'd buried these old wounds but…"

"They're back." Percy finished.

Annabeth _hated_ it when people finished her sentences—she prided herself on being clever and thinking of things first, especially at flaunting it too, so it ticked her off when others stole her thunder and came to her conclusion first, off _her_ logic.

Thalia knew this fact well about her little Annie, so it was a punch in the gut when the blonde did not in fact turn around and slap the green-eyed boy upside the head, but actually _smiled_ in amusement, however little.

Apart from the little twitch of her lips at his finishing her sentence, she didn't even turn her head to look at him.

"Yes. _You're_ back." She gestured helplessly to me, finishing her thought with _Percy's_ own phrasing.

I felt like fainting and punching Percy in the face all at once, so I settled for staring intensely at Annabeth.

"And where have I been?" I demanded, determined to stay on track and get to this _change_ in Annabeth when we were alone and _not_ near the boy I was steadily growing to not trust, however irrationally.

Annabeth took a calming breath. "In that tree."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Come again?" I barely managed to keep the panicked note out of my voice, though it did sound slightly higher pitched, even to my ears.

Annabeth sighed again. "Your dad took pity on you when…"

"When hellhounds weren't in short supply." I nodded along, trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Yes," She nodded too, "He took pity and turned you into that big tree out there. Your spirit has been helping protect the camp boundaries for just over six years now."

I stared at her.

"It… it was like a dream." I said in a daze. "I dreamt I was sitting on the hill, watching the valley, but there were no buildings or cabins… just… but then I felt sick, and suddenly I woke up. It… maybe sleep—or death or whatever—feels different, but I coulda _sworn_ it hasn't been more than a few _minutes_ at most…"

"Six years, Thalia." Annabeth said with a grimace. "And, you _were_ sick. L-uh…. Someone poisoned your tree, and you were dying and the boundaries started to fail. So, we went on a quest to find the Golden Fleece, which we did, and it healed your tree. But, it worked… _too_ well I guess and…"

"It healed me, too." I realized.

Again, it felt like a punch in the gut when she gave me a little frown at finishing her sentence, like she was reminding me that she didn't like it but was letting it slide because I was in shock.

However, the shock at that little frown was more than the shock of finding out I was a poisoned tree not an hour ago.

Again, I forced myself to stay on track and get pissed later.

"So… that makes you… thirteen now? And Luke's what, nineteen or something?"

Annabeth gulped. "Yeah." She said in a small voice. I did _not_ miss the way Percy's hand was suddenly interlaced with hers, _or_ the way she seemed to relax at the contact, and pull herself almost completely together again when she glanced back at him and he gave that little comforting smile again.

_**Somebody's**__ gonna get their head knocked off if they don't quit it and go the hell away,_ I thought acidly.

But I focused, "Where's Luke?" I demanded.

"…gone." She whispered.

My stomach iced over.

"He's not dead." Percy said quickly upon seeing my horrified face, and Annabeth seemed to be scolding herself for saying it like that but unable to think of another way to put it.

"Percy… you were there…" She said with a pleading look thrown toward him.

He seemed to be taken off guard. "Oh, Annabeth… I-uh… I really don't think she needs to hear it from me. And I really don't think I should be commenting, you know where… where I stand I guess. I… Annabeth?"

She looked like her world was being ripped apart and she fought back tears. Percy looked like he'd rather be stabbing himself in the eye rather than being the one to make her cry, but also frustrated in how helpless he was in being unable to change it.

"It's ok, you're right… I need to… she needs to hear it from me." She said brokenly, struggling to pull herself together as she straightened up and faced me head-on.

By this point I was really dreading hearing this.

"L-Luke… is gone, but… not dead. Worse, maybe, but… oh Thalia. He was hurt so badly by… by everything. You know his family life, his dad, how it got to him…"

Oh, did I know. I knew full well how much Luke _hated_ that bastard of a father of his, and I knew it even better than Annabeth did. There were some things he reserved to himself until the little seven year old in their charge was either out of earshot or fast asleep. Still, even Annabeth knew how much he hated it, and that was only just scratching the surface…

"Yeah. I know." I said through clenched teeth.

Annabeth shuddered. "He… got a quest. Stealing an apple from the garden of Hesperides, but he got hurt. He was angry that it was a repeat mission, and that he was scarred for life because his father just wanted to preoccupy him. He… went bad." She squeaked.

Every alarm flag in my head went off.

"You mean… like, 'he's a total ass now' kind of bad, or a… _we've got a real problem here_ kinda bad…?" I said slowly.

She shuddered.

"It's a problem." Percy said quietly.

"A very… very big problem." Annabeth shivered again. She looked at me, her wide gray eyes swimming mournfully. "He… well, first he stole Zeus' master bolt."

Pause.

"WHAT!?"

"And then tried to blame it on Percy, which indirectly is what triggered him figuring out he was a demigod."

"_**WHAT**_!? Where is he, I am _so_ gonna kick some sense into the moronic ass of his-!"

"He's commanding a cruise ship full of monsters and collecting rouge demigods in preparation to overthrow the gods." Annabeth said very quickly, so fast I was sure Percy didn't catch all of it judging by his confused look… or, that might've just been what he looked like. "And… he was the one to poison your tree, in hopes of lowering camp security so monsters would start picking us off. Which, in all honesty would've happened if we hadn't gotten the Fleece. And, now that you're back we're starting to realize he might've had other ideas…"

My world was spinning, and the floor didn't seem to have any relation to the ceiling anymore. I felt like throwing up and punching something and crying all at the same time.

Luke?

My Luke?

Oh my gods.

"Thalia? Are you in there?" Annabeth was shaking my shoulders, apparently she'd been trying to talk to me.

I whipped my head rapidly to shake away my internal freak out.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine. Just… shocked, you know?" She looked like she really did understand, and for the first time I saw how truly screwed up she was because of this, how hurt she felt by this. I'd loved Luke as a brother/best friend/…maybe something more (?) kinda of guy to me, but Annabeth simply adored him. Not loved him in a way that made her accept all the bad things about him, but worshiped him in a way that she didn't believe he could do any wrong in the first place—that he _had_ no bad traits.

And then he'd gone and done a _whole lotta wrong._

Suddenly I was less hurt, more angry. Betraying me was one thing, but he and I had always put aside our arguments to take care of Annabeth, and now to find that in my absence he'd just forgotten all that? The minute I was gone he just _forgot_ about her? _Our_ charge, _our_ adopted daughter?

No, that wasn't gonna fly with me.

But there was a part of me that needed to know—the morbidly curious part of me _needed_ to understand _exactly_ where things went wrong. If there was any chance it was all a misunderstanding, I needed to know.

"How did you, uh… how did it all start? I mean, you _know_ he's rouge now, it isn't…"

"A misunderstanding?" Annabeth finished, her eyes full of understanding sympathy and pain. So, apparently she'd also experienced this train of thought and learned the hard way she was wrong. "Well, there was him stealing the master bolt, but no one knew it was him at the time so they sent out a quest to retrieve it for Zeus. That quest was me, Percy, and Grover."

I glanced back at Percy who gave an acknowledging if still weak smile, and Grover where he sat on the couch who bleated nervously under his breath at the memory.

"It's… complicated. There were a lot of signs along the way, but the main thing is that we managed to get the bolt back and everything was copasetic… until Luke got Percy alone and tried to kill him."

My eyes were locked onto Percy's now.

"And we're trusting his word alone-!"

"No! Thalia!" Annabeth cut me off in frustration, quickly escalating to anger at my reaction though she used to put up with it even better than Luke. Her gray eyes glared at me. "Percy, for all intensive purposes, was _dead_ when we found him. If he'd been anyone else, he _would_ be dead."

That calmed me down, _mildly, _but the last part was interesting.

"You telling me he's durable? Honey, if I know one thing it's that if Luke really wanted to kill someone, he _would._ Leaving room for recovery isn't his style and you know it." I snarked.

"True enough." Percy muttered.

Annabeth shot him a look, "I'm defending you, you idiot, please shut up." She sighed, and he shut up with an abashed blush.

Wow, she said please.

That was new.

Annabeth turned back to me with another little sigh. "Percy's more resilient than most, and it helps that he had a slightly higher tolerance for ambrosia and nectar when combating fatal wounds."

"I do?" Percy blurted out, surprised by that news.

She smiled curiously him. "After the minotaur, you downed an entire glass of nectar when most of us could probably only handle about half of it. That isn't a higher tolerance?"

He frowned in thought. "I hadn't really noticed that before."

Now she really was smiling in clear amusement. "Only you." She scoffed jokingly and he shrugged.

While that little exclusive exchange both irritating and fascinating, I was still caught up about the nectar thing. There was only one person I'd ever met who had a higher tolerance for the food of the gods, and we'd attributed it to parentage: _me._

"Who are you?" I finally asked him. He looked confused and was about to answer when Annabeth but him off again.

"Your dad, not your name." She clarified, and he nodded, understanding.

"Uh, my dad's Poseidon." He said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

Well, can't say I didn't half expect that. The vivid green eyes, the dull yet easy-going persona, combined with the fact I'm almost constantly trying not to tell him to go away were some big hints.

Still, I'd never met another kid of the Big Three before, besides… well, it was intriguing.

"You don't seem too surprised." Annabeth noted calmly.

I shrugged. "I was getting around to figuring that out eventually. Just… a feeling."

She glanced at Percy, but then rolled her eyes at the confused look on Percy's face. If he hadn't seen me pop out of a tree, I suspected he might not have made the connection quite as quick. Apparently his stupidity was _endearing_ or at least somewhat entertaining to the mini-genius in training that was Annabeth Chase, though I could've _sworn_ she had no tolerance for that sort of thing. I thought idiots annoyed her.

"Well, now that's out in the open, we have another problem." Annabeth sighed, her and Percy sharing a loaded look.

"What now?" I huffed, already not liking that I'd been awake less than an hour and everything seemed to be going wrong so far.

"You know the pact made by the Big Three?" Annabeth clarified.

Uh, no duh.

"Kinda how I ended up being a hellhound's chew toy now, isn't it? Not something one forgets, really." I deadpanned.

They both blushed slightly while Grover let out another soft whimper.

"Uh, right," She flustered, "Well, that pact was made because right after WWII there was a prophecy given that the next child of the Big Three to reach sixteen years old would have the power to overthrow Olympus."

"Or save it, but no one ever focuses on that part apparently." Percy sighed to himself. Annabeth and I rolled our eyes almost in synch.

"_Anyway, _our problem is that now Percy's not the only Big Three kid around anymore, and even though you haven't aged a whole lot in six years, you're still older than him."

I glanced down at my body. "I was almost fifteen when I got tree-a-fied, so it stands a good chance that I could be fifteen-ish now I suppose, and since my birthday's in December… I guess we have our deadline to figure out what to do then. Because I'm _not_ going to be the one to screw up the gods, no matter what… I guess it's whatever _Luke's_ doing." I concluded. I was used to there being some big bad guy or deadline to fight against, but it was hard that suddenly that big bad guy was _Luke._

"That is if you even make it to sixteen," Percy noted with a smirk.

I shot him a not-so-mock glare. "It took _five_ hellhounds and _three_ giant snakes combined with a broken spear and no shield to get me down the first time: there is _no way in hell_ I won't make it half a freaking year, _kelp head_."

Despite the insult I thought might get a rise, he only widened his smile, seeming to miss me being ticked off and actually find it funny.

"I wasn't mocking you're fighting skills, I'm only going with known history," He shrugged innocently, and I had to consciously force myself not to punch him in the face.

"You should be _thanking_ me, you idiot," I snapped. "Now at least you're not on the chopping block, huh?" I sneered.

He ducked his head slightly, "And I am, trust me. _Thank you,_ really. I was teasing, but I'm sure you're gonna make it and I think you're going to _save_ Olympus rather than what everyone else thinks." He said so earnestly I compared the feeling to colliding with a brick wall when you were going eighty. I really couldn't think of a comeback. At my thrown look, he smiled warmly. "I said I'm going by known history, and anyone who can take on all those monsters in the name of protecting family is ok in my book."

I stared at him in open shock.

Annabeth smiled knowingly at me. "Percy is a good judge of character, and… loyal, I guess. He stands by his word." She explained to me.

Percy, for his part, blushed tomato red at her compliment.

Annabeth took pity on him and moved topics quickly. "But as I mentioned earlier, you coming back is… well, it could be seen in some ways as Luke's soft spot: he poisoned your tree to force us to find the Fleece and return you to human form, which would be _nice_ I guess, if he hadn't tried to kill you in the first place."

I rolled my eyes. "As if being in a tree-coma is really classified as being _alive_ in the first place." I scoffed.

She pursed her lips but didn't comment on that. "Another way one might interpret his motives is for his own gain. He's already tried to get Percy to join him a couple times now, and I think he's starting to realize was a stupidly loyal guy Percy is."

"Meaning I'm not joining him. Ever." Percy nodded firmly.

I gave him a calculating look, suddenly decided to reevaluate my suspicions about the son of Poseidon upon hearing all this "loyalty" crap. I mean, I was loyal too, but it wouldn't be put past me to lie and fight for what I want.

Percy seemed… different.

Too honest for his own good or something.

"But Luke thinks I might join him." I put together.

Annabeth looked nervous.

"…_will_ you? I mean, do you…?"

I gave her an '_are you kidding me?' _look. "I love the guy to death, and to me I just watched him carry you off to safety to keep from being eaten by car sized mutts—so he's got _some _cred with me. However, you haven't been wrong yet and if you say he's gone, then by all means, he's gone. I don't think you realized how much… I dunno, _effort_ or care we put into taking care of you. We… adopted you in sorts, _together, _and hearing he went and checked out both mentally and literally the moment I went down…? Uh-uh, he's gonna be hearing from me about that, all this _overthrowing Olympus_ shit aside. I know he has problems with his dad, as he should, but I don't think killing _all_ our parents is quite justified, jerks as they may be."

Annabeth looked like she was about to cry she was so happy. She lurched forward and hugged me around the middle, and I could only grin and hug her tightly back.

"I missed you." She muttered.

I chuckled under my breath. "I saw you like five minutes ago to me, but I guess I missed you too smartie. Or rather, I'm glad I get to see you again."

All this information was a lot to take in, and I kinda felt like I was talking out my ass with all these declarations of sides and accepting of things I only somewhat understood, but I trusted Annabeth that she wouldn't lie or lead me astray. So maybe there was a butt load of stuff I still didn't know or understand, I could figure it out in time. You didn't live as long as I had outside camp without knowing a thing or two about going with the flow when things made zero sense. In those times, you clung to those you trusted.

Luke wasn't here, but Annabeth was. If I'd woken up with Luke beside me, maybe it would've been different, but I couldn't dwell on _what ifs_—they were a colossal waste of time and energy. Besides, I trusted Luke like an ally on the battlefield, but I trusted Annabeth like a little sister, a daughter, and a best friend all in one, not just with my life. In fact, if I got hurt protecting her it would only ever be my fault, never hers—that's the way our relationship went, so she could never purposefully betray me and I actually take _offense_ to it. She was _Annabeth_, MY little Annabeth, and Luke was the guy who was supposed to take care of her in my absence, which he failed epically at. In my opinion, he'd already betrayed me by leaving her, _before_ this 'destroy the gods' crap.

Boys you fancy could lie to you, but children that loved you hardly ever did. Annabeth wasn't a child anymore, but her teary gray eyes, crying happy tears at my acceptance, spoke more than Luke's crafty speeches—and boy, did I know how he could give a speech, and be pretty damn persuasive too.

So, maybe I was winging it, but I'd wing it and stick to my decisions because that's who I was. Changing myself was just so not worth it, not for anyone. I say what I mean and I mean what I say, and the world could just deal, so even if I was making the wrong decisions, well the critics could just _suck it_ now couldn't they? I was siding with Annie, and getting between that was a suicide mission.

"Thank you," She said, pulling away and giving me an earnest if not teary smile.

"Any time kid. Now, can you show me around this place since apparently you grew up here? I technically only just arrived after all." I grinned.

She rolled her eyes but nodded as she moved towards the door.

My moment of contentedness was shattered when I remembered the one thing that had yet to be resolved in my mind, and that still bothered me immensely.

And it just so happened to be triggered by Annabeth leading the way, grinning at a cheerful Percy by her side.

"Happy, wise girl?" He asked in amusement.

She scoffed with a grin, "'Course seaweed brain, why wouldn't I be? I just got Thalia back. And _you_ got a cousin, mind you."

He let out a laugh, and I had a flashback.

From as very, very long time ago.

A good one.

But at the same time the worst one I have.

"Hey, uh, actually Annabeth, do you think we could catch up a little while we talk a walk? No offense kelp head." I said to Percy, trying not to sound sorry at all.

Even if I succeeded, he didn't seem to mind and only nodded, giving one last parting smile and wave before jogging down the porch steps and towards the cabins.

"I know that look, what's on your mind?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow at me, moving to walk down the stairs, but I didn't budge, folding my arms across my chest.

"You mind explaining what all _that_ was?" I demanded.

She arched her brow in surprise. "What was all what?" She asked innocently.

I gave her a look.

"Smart girls like you shouldn't play dumb Annabeth, now spill it."


	3. Green Eyed Monster

She managed to convince me to at least sit on the steps of the porch while she continued to deny the plain facts of life, and here we sat ten minutes later still neck deep in this argument.

"You can't _not_ know what I'm talking about." I insisted.

"But I don't. Despite the reputation I instill in others, I don't _actually_ know it all, Thals." She sighed in amusement.

But I wasn't in the mood for joking and simply rolled my eyes dismissively at that. "Come on, think, what's the biggest thing that's changed since I've been gone? Other than Luke and all that crap."

She frowned at me. "I dunno, the camp? The fact I'm the best knivesman around? The fact I'm thirteen instead of seven?" She rattled off impatiently.

I scoffed once and just gave in.

"The _boy?"_ I hissed.

She blinked in surprise. "What? Percy? What about him?"

I glared. "You don't seem to care too much that he's almost always in your personal space, now do ya?" I challenged.

Now she rolled her eyes. "He's a bit protective in new situations. He doesn't know you and therefore he sticks close. You'll notice that as soon as he decided you were worth trusting he backed off."

"But why is he protective of _you?"_ I growled unhappily.

She smiled. "He's my best friend Thalia." She said gently.

"I thought _I_ was your best friend, _smartie."_ I frowned.

She sighed lightly. "You're more like a sister Thals, and an overprotective big sister at that. But Percy's a friend, and one of the best I've ever had. After you were gone, I had Luke most of the time and my siblings in my cabin, but… well, Luke was always growing more and more distant over the years and my siblings were like people I liked but because I had no choice. I _do_ like them, but I didn't chose them."

"But you chose Percy." I sighed, frustrated by this for some strange reason. "You do realize how… I dunno, _unnatural _it is? With your parents and everything?"

She gave a mild glare. "What, we're not allowed to be friends just because our parents hate each other? He's infuriating sometimes, and definitely takes after his dad in more ways than one, but I actually find those traits amusing rather than annoying the way my mother does. I'm sure if he was _just _the son of Poseidon and I had to hang around him for a few millennia it'd get old pretty fast too, but he's really… **not** like that at the same time. He takes after his mom too, and from what I hear about her, she's a saint. Or, at least Percy makes her sound that way."

He has a mom. A stable mom.

Don't want to say that ticked me off because it was freakin petty, but it still did.

He may trust me, but I was having a hard time trusting him. At the same time, it was like I had no _choice_ but to trust him, and I hated people telling me what to do. If there was anything worse than not being able to trust someone, it was trusting someone because I couldn't think up a good enough reason _not_ to trust them.

Call me paranoid, but there ya have it.

"You don't like him." Annabeth frowned at me. I glanced up, wanting to deny it immediately by the hurt look in her eyes, but not being able to.

"I… I honestly don't know. He bugs me on principal, even before I knew who his dad was—that was actually the 'feeling' I was talking about when I said I'd figure out his parentage eventually. That irrational instinct to tell him to get lost and not trust him, combined with the eyes…"

"Not a big jump." She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in stress. "You know, I'd seen this coming. I had always said that if you two ever met, you'd either be best friends or worst enemies."

I tisked under my breath. "Way to be melodramatic, can't we just be rivals and call it a day?" I pointed it out, but she was already shaking her head.

"Not with Percy," She explained sadly. "If he likes and trusts you, short of the big-time betrayal that Luke pulled he could forgive you for anything. Insults, fights, gossip, back-stabbing… people here have done it all to him, and he's looked the other way and easily forgiven them the minute they apologize. However, it works the other way too…"

"If he doesn't trust me or think I pose a threat, I'm dead to him." I concluded. It made a scary kind of sense, seeing as I thought in a vaguely similar way. Except, I didn't forgive people. Not only was it near impossible to get into my good graces, but it didn't take much for me to get set off on someone, and nothing convinced me to forgive once they'd crossed over onto my bad side.

"And you just saw him as a pretty sweet and soft-spoken guy," Annabeth continued, "But get him worked up… well, I'm not a hundred percent sure even you could set him back on his heels." She frowned.

Now _that_ wasn't going to fly.

"Yeah right, I've got years of training out in the real world _on my own_ not to mention—what would it be now?—about two years on the kid or something. He may be a kid of the Big Three, but if anything that means he might put up a fight instead of just rolling over like most do." I snapped immediately.

Annabeth seemed to realize her mistake of triggering my competitive side and quickly back-tracked. "No, no, no! It's not… no, it's not like you _couldn't_ beat him, I'm sure you _could_… just like he _could_ beat you. In my opinion you two are evenly matched, but I'm saying that not only would it take a lot more to get him to the point where Percy actually _would_ fight you, but it would take a heck of a lot more to calm him down too." She tried to explain.

"He calmed right down when you explained that I like to insult as terms of endearment," I pointed out acidly.

She rolled her eyes impatiently, "He's a bit slow on the uptake sometimes and he looks to me to explain the things he misses. He's my best friend, and _I'm_ _**his**_ best friend too. He's very logical once he, you know, sees the logic. It's getting there that's the issue."

I snorted. "Good, I was a bit worried I was the only one who noticed he was a bit slow on the uptake."

She shoved my shoulder playfully. "Oi, that's your cousin you're talking about remember. Play nice, please? I'm going to ask him the same thing at dinner tonight, and I know _he'll_ at least try to be nice, what about you?" She challenged.

I made a face instinctively. "I don't want a cousin, thankyouverymuch. And I make no such promises. After all, staying a summer locked up in this place is gonna make me go stir crazy, and apparently he's the only one with enough kick to be any fun."

Annabeth chuckled lightly. "I'd try the Ares cabin if you're bored. Clarisse in particular is always up for a fight of dominance, which I know you _love."_

Well, couldn't deny that.

We sat in a moment of silence before she brought up the one topic I didn't want to talk about. I was kinda hoping she'd skim by it but let it go but, no such luck.

"And Percy would be a good cousin, ya know? He's sweet, and a great listener. Not to mention he'd be more than willing to fight if you asked. A surprise family member is weird, but I think of every you'd be lucky that it was Percy." She said thoughtfully.

I sniffed dismissively. "I know you know that we're not actually related."

She gave me an exasperated look. "Of course I know that," She scoffed, "But Percy doesn't care. Everyone here is family to him, whether they want it or not, and he cares like extended family—you not being an exception. If anything, because you're both Big Three kids and tangled up in the prophecy together, he probably already thinks of you like a cousin or a sister. That's just the way he works."

I grit my teeth together. "Well tell him I don't care and he's most certainly not my little brother." I snapped a bit too harshly for it to be conversational, or joking as I'd half-planned on hiding it as.

She stared at me in shock. "Woah, struck a nerve have I?" She muttered. I didn't respond, but stared blankly out at the empty camp, the sun rising higher in the sky as the early morning turned into the actual morning where people actually got up. I'd deduced walking down here that I'd popped out of the tree at the break of dawn, and although many had gotten up to cluster around and not be helpful, simply gawk, no one was actually doing anything that early in the morning. People were just starting to leave their cabins for real now, fully dressed this time and with the intentions of breakfast or training on their minds.

"Thalia?" Annabeth prompted, puling my attention back to the conversation I'd tired to ignore being a part of.

I gave a small defeated/irritated sigh, the tension in my shoulders not relaxing. "I ran away for a lot of reasons. You know that." I said shortly, and she only nodded mutely. "I… well, there was one reason, the biggest reason, and Percy reminds me so much of it. I can't explain it, but seeing him looking all innocent and helpful, like a freakin puppy or something, and not understanding that I'm either gonna die or destroy Olympus in six months…"

That was only one of the reasons he reminded me of… of a long time ago.

"Or save it. As he pointed out." She said comfortingly.

I let out a humorless laugh. "Yeah, that too. Believing in me with no reason to. He's just so… so much of the reason I left. I don't want family, except you. At least with you in know you can handle yourself some, you won't go disappearing on me."

I felt her arm wrap around my shoulders. I remember she used to do that after a long day of running, late at night as we sat around the fire at our make-shift hide-out and I'd had a particularly tough go of it all. She didn't need words or any hint from me that I was less than perfectly ok, but she'd always just wrap her little arms around my shoulders and bury her head in the crook of my neck, tickling my chin with those wild golden curls of hers.

Those arms were bigger now and filled out with hardened muscle, more like one of my peers doing it, but it still had the comforting feeling.

"I won't disappear on you, if I can help it." She promised earnestly. "And trust me when I say that Percy won't either. He still calls his mom every chance he gets because he knows she worries so much, and even though he can be so stubborn in putting everyone's needs and lives in front of his, he knows not to throw his own life away for nothing either. He can take care of himself too, just as well as you could if you were on your own again. Trust me on this, we've all grown into our own and aren't about to disappear like helpless little kids."

She might not have known it, having me never so much as breathed… _his_ name since…

No, she couldn't have known, but she'd said exactly what I couldn't deal with.

Because instead of those brilliant green orbs, I could only see the shocking blue that matched my own, but filled with the same innocence and belief that I would take care of things, of him.

And I couldn't.

And Percy'd laughed so carefree, like hearing Annabeth call him seaweed brain was just the most entertaining thing in the world—something so simple as a nickname…

It was like a ghost laugh, haunting me. Because as close as it was, it wasn't really it. Wasn't the one I'd been dying to hear do so, _so_ long.

I wanted it gone.

But mostly I wanted _my_ Annabeth back, not this new girl who didn't mind a boy finishing her sentences and hovering protectively in her personal space when she can take care of herself.

Maybe I was jealous, but I didn't care. Maybe I was nostalgic, but I didn't care about that either.

All I knew is that I had a "cousin" at this camp that would be a hell of a lot of fun to mess with, and who also was conveniently the center of several deeply rooted issues at the moment.

"Promise me you'll give him a chance." Annabeth asked quietly.

I pressed my lips together.

"We'll see how this plays out first."


End file.
